On May 7 two climbers headed to the route Lunatic Fringe (single-pitch 5.10c). The leader was fairly experienced (four to five years), and the belayer had about 1.5 years of experience. The two had climbed together the day before in the Valley. Lu...
On May 3, Hans Florine and a climbing partner started a climb of the Nose of El Capitan at approximately 7 a.m. Both are highly experienced. Florine has made over 100 ascents of the Nose and has held the speed record on the route; his partner had ...
In 2018 there were eight climbing-related accidents on Mt. Shasta. Four were due to falls on ice or snow, two were due to rockfall, and one was the result of glissading with crampons; little information is available about the eighth incident. In a...
On November 28, a male climber, DS (21), was leading Succubus, a 5.10 trad finger crack. The crux of the climb is approximately 25 feet up, where you move right under a roof to reach a finger crack. DS placed what he felt was a solid 0.5 Black Dia...
On November 10, person 1 (female, 34) fell 40 to 60 feet from the top of the Oak Creek Vista overlook to the rocky trail below, suffering numerous serious injuries. An unaffiliated witness stated that he observed her climb to the top of the wall a...
On March 5, in early afternoon, Ryan Johnson and Marc-André Leclerc reached the summit of the Main Tower (6,910’) in the Mendenhall Towers massif, after completing the first ascent of the north face. The pair started down the east ridge and then...
On May 12, I (female, age 35) was scrambling up Mt. Skarland (10,315 feet) in the eastern Hayes Range when a boulder, approximately two feet in diameter, was dislodged by a climber above and struck my left hand. I suffered a hemorrhaging crush inj...
On June 4, a guided group summited Denali via the West Buttress climbing route. The lead guide reported that “…temperatures were between -10°F and -20°F. Once above Denali Pass, winds were estimated at a consistent 15 to 20 mph, with occasional gu...
On the evening of June 3, two climbers were descending toward base camp on skis. One of the climbers fell after being pulled to the side by his gear sled. The 51-year-old climber reported feeling and hearing a popping sensation in his left knee du...
On June 25, a 59-year-old male from a guided expedition descended from 17,200-foot camp with high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). This climber had spent two nights at that elevation until his shortness of breath and wet lung sounds became overwhe...
On May 20, Britt Ruegger, 34, and I (age 29) were climbing the Mini-Moonflower Route when a debris avalanche swept the route and hit us as we were rappelling. We’d arrived at KIA (Kahiltna International Airport) on May 8 and proceeded to log some ...
Aerial view of Denali, showing approximate locations of (1) the crevasse into which two climbers slid on May 20, (2) the West Buttress, and(3) the 14,200-foot camp. NPS Photo Two climbers were ascending Denali’s West B...
In the early afternoon on May 3, a group of three ski mountaineers departed their base camp in the west fork of the Ruth Glacier. This was the first day of clearing following a storm that had lasted more than a week. Their objective was to climb a...
On the northwest ridge of Sa’i Lhamo, with (A) Karpo Kangri (6,535m), (B) Argan Kangri (6,789m), (C) Peak 6,420m, and (D) Gazgazri (6,150m) in the back. Photo by Cyril Renailler In the summer of 2016, Pascal Hottiaux, Alain Pozo, Cyril Renail...
At 9:42 a.m. on April 14, rangers were notified about an injured climber by a local air taxi service that had received a text from the climbing team’s Garmin inReach device. The team of three reported that one climber had broken his right leg whil...
ON JULY 22, 2018, just before 11:30 a.m., Andrzej Bargiel from Poland reached the summit of K2 (8,611 meters). That day and the day before, more than 60 other people summited K2—a record for a single season—but unlike the large majority of them, B...
The accident scene on an unnamed peak in the Hidden Mountains of Alaska. (1) Location of John and Alissa at the time of the fall. (2) Emmett's position. (3) Emmett's belayer. The face is about 1,500 feet high. FOUR CLIMBERS set out to explore...
ON SEPTEMBER 30, at about 2 p.m., Jim Morrison and I pulled off our overboots, clicked into our ski bindings, and laboriously buckled our boots. Our oxygen masks were off, making every action at 27,940 feet, on the summit of Lhotse, extremely slow...
On February 13, I took a 20-plus-meter lead fall while attempting a new route high on the north face of Mt. Lawrence Grassi, above my home in Canmore. My friend Ethan Berman and I had good weather, were climbing well, and were within two pitches o...
On the evening of June 6, NPS rangers were alerted about a climber who was unresponsive and experiencing seizures in 14,200-foot camp. This 40-year-old male had been pulled from his tent when his climbing partner found him experiencing seizures wh...